With the home opener less than a week away, the Slippery Rock tennis team traveled to Erie to compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Atlantic Regional Championships (ITA).
The ITA was a bracket-style competition featuring both singles and doubles play. Slippery Rock sent eight athletes to compete in the three-day event held from Sept. 17-19.
“We were more ready for this one. I think it did payoff, we were better prepared and we had some pretty good results,” coach Matt Meredith stated.
Slippery Rock had numerous players make deep runs in the bracket. Freshman Lacey Cohen won her first two matches, but fell in the fourth round of the championship bracket after receiving a first round bye. Junior Carla Corrochano Moracho fell early in the championship bracket, but was able to come back and win the consolation bracket after rallying to get five straight wins.
“She (Corrochano Moracho) had a tough first draw, Carla could have beat that girl, and for Carla to not miss a beat after that was pretty good. She stepped up and took care of the back draw,” Meredith said.
Junior Nina Barbano and seniors Kylee Woodman and Stephanie Fortier all posted opening round wins at the invitational.
Barbano ended the invitational with a record of 2-1. Woodman and Fortier ended up at 1-1. Senior Tiffany Kollah and sophomore Amanda Bruscemi lost their opening round matchups, but ended up winning a match in the consolation bracket.
In the consolation bracket, teammates Bruscemi and Corrochano Moracho ended up facing off against each other, with Corrochano Moracho ending up victorious.
“That sucks,” Meredith said. “We are not used to playing each other outside of practice, but they both handled it very well. At that point I have to step back and just say ‘go Rock,’ and not coach either one of them.”
In doubles play, each doubles team put up at least one win. The team of Cohen and Corrochano Moracho went 2-1 on the weekend. Also going 2-1 was the duo of Bruscemi and Barbano. Kollah and sophomore Allie Welch went 1-1, while Fortier and Woodman went 2-2 and lost in the semifinals of the consolation bracket.
Slippery Rock will play host to West Liberty University on Sept. 24 with the match starting at 12 p.m. This is the first team matchup of the season for Slippery Rock. Doubles play will be crucial against West Liberty.
“They knocked off the number one seed in doubles, we got to go out and smack them in doubles,” Meredith said. “We need to go out and do well in doubles and if we do that, we will be in very good shape. I’m confident we will take care of business.”
